Thoughts on Pope Francis

Photographed with "anti-fracking activists"? An encyclical on “the care of the planet”? The silence should be embarrassed, not obsequious. And if you are wondering who the boffin Boff is, Andrew dug up the answer from the National Catholic Reporter: “One of Pope Francis’ most vocal supporters since his election three days ago has been Leonardo Boff, one of the founders of liberation theology….”

Yikes. It’s not, as Andrew says, that Francis has signed up for liberation theology. It’s not that straightforward: steal from the productive members of society, squander what you steal while pretending to help the poor, do everything you can to be sure every country achieves the same level of economic misery. That, in a nutshell, is what liberation theology is all about when it comes to economics. Francis is not so brash. Rather, as Andrew says, “When it comes to economics, at least, his thinking appears to be a muddle of Rerum Novarum and Juan Peron.” Which is not, as he concludes, particularly reassuring.